In a climate where higher education continues to be competitive with attracting the “best” students, what is it that goes in to recruiting these students from affluent communities? Many schools have struggled with finances and finding students at appropriate discount rates that will pay full (or close to full) tuition. Bronxville is one of the wealthiest communities in America with the average home costing $2.33 million (CNBC) with average property taxes coming in at $60,000. Bronxville families, generally, send their students to schools amongst the Ivy League or Hidden Ivies; parents want to continue to create their legacy with their alma maters. The thought is that a child should have the same valuable experience they had. Preliminary research from Thomas Epenshade and Alexandria Walton Radford suggest that, even from elementary school, parents are seeking elite school’s advice on what path will get their students into a reputable institution (Epenshade and Radford 15).
My research will include the work on Bronxville High School seniors in a form of a focus group to gain insight on some resistance or negative components they see on their parents conditioning them to select a particular school from a set list; questions to be developed to target personal answers at a peer-like level. Gender, race, and age will all be tracked for methodology. Forbes discusses how elite schools can benefit minorities the most, but their selection process does not reflect that. The discussions would take place without adults in an effort to gain meaningful, genuine, conversations. On the other research front, I will work to discover the efforts universities make to recruit parents to have their children part of their legacy. Initial thoughts are driven from Alumni and Family weekend activities, mailings to college-aged prospects, and cultivation of the parents as donors. Are parents building their own social capital within their families by only allowing elite schools? The critical development takes place in these affluent households that identified gifted children are identified from may condition students to be selective of their college.
David Karen provides research that shows how elite colleges are selective in their process with their application requirements and narrowing down the acceptance rate (Karen 229). In most communities, there is a local attraction for some students to stay at home and attend the town’s college. Since, money is not a challenge for any of these families, they work hard to send their children to the best schools. Bronxville sends fewer than 1% of their children to the local college. Without expenses as a barrier, the children are allowed to search for any school they are interested in. Parents in Bronxville may want them to attend the best schools, but do they really want the best for their child’s scope in life. I am driven by this project due to my work at the local college in the reference to the affluent community. The target audiences are the local schools that are not Ivy-like in the areas also represented on the CNBC research; high-ability seniors in these high schools, teachers, parents, and researchers are all part of the targeted audience.